The events on the French front in World War II during September 1944, specifically Patton's inability to progress beyond the Metz fortress complex and, most importantly, the failure of British General Bernard Montgomery's attempted Rhine crossing in Operation Market Garden, would appear as evidence that such hopes of lightning victories . The Germans, who observed the Americans pulling out of Juvelize, occupied the abandoned town the following day. We were surprised the Navy was there, he commented, and the Navy was surprised they were so far away from the ocean. The day dawned with a thick blanket of fog shrouding the crest of the hill. The Germans did not intended to give up either without a fight. Although the Panzergrenadiers on the crest had managed to hold on during the morning, the combined pressure of American ground fire and air strikes finally broke the enemys nerve and the ground troops began retreating down the southern slope in the afternoon. Bradley did not announce this crossing until the night of 23 Mar; Patton had wished the Americans to announce that they had crossed the Rhine River before the British. As a result, the 112th Panzer Brigade lost 69 of its 90 tanks. This operation to cross the northern Rhine River launched in the night of 23 Mar 1945. The 112th Panzer Brigade decimated by the clash at Dompaire, had only two dozen serviceable tanks. To Allied supreme commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower he wrote: I have just pissed into the Rhine River. His superior, General Omar Bradley, released news of this crossing to the press "at a time calculated to take some of the luster from the news of Montgomerys crossing." [5] The initiative then shifted to the Americans when a task force from Companies A and B of the 37th Tank Battalion swept through Rechicourt, driving the Germans beyond the town. Upon arriving at a dock area, Tucker and his comrades saw a group of sailors lowering a Landing Ship Tank (LST) into the water with a large crane. Leclerc also benefited from repeated tactical air strikes by P-47 Thunderbolts of Brig. ww2dbaseThe river on XXX Corps' front was 500 yards across and defended on its eastern bank by the German 8th Parachute Division, in and around the town of Rees. Weeks ahead of his rival, British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, Patton fought his own higher command structure nearly as hard as he did the Germans, making impolitic comments in public, moving farther and more aggressively than ordered, and even having his troops pose as First Army soldiers in order to steal fuel from that units stores in order to maintain their own advance to the east. He engineered the Normandy breakout and was made commander of the Twelfth Army Group. To compensate for a reduction in forces, the main objective was switched to a strike toward Nancy to relieve those elements of the 553rd Volksgrenadier still fighting their way out of the tightening pocket. This article is part of our larger selection of postsabout the George S. Patton. Patton would now report to Bradley. But where he crossed the Main? Patton drove to the XII Corps front on September 19, where he met first with Eddy and later with Wood. On September 2, Hitler issued orders for the creation of 25 new divisions, most of which were to be given the designation of Volksgrenadier. The Commanders: The Leadership Journeys of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery, and Erwin Rommel. Ive been looking forward to this for a long time, Patton said as he unzipped his fly and urinated into the river while an Army photographer recorded the moment for posterity. This meant that two columns of tanks and half-tracks from the 113th would have to carry the objective themselves. The western boundary of Lorraine is formed by the Moselle Valley and the eastern boundary by the Saare River. Having previously been denied permission to photograph the face of the 200,000th prisoner (the Geneva Convention required that a prisoner be protected against acts of public curiosity), Patton announced that this time we will take a picture of his ass. (A week later their POW capture would top 300,000. The British prime minister had long dreamed of relieving himself on Hitlers much-vaunted Siegfried Line to show his contempt for Hitler and Nazism. After the completion of the Battle in The Ardennes, Patton and his Army turned to the south and east attacking toward the Rhine. If so, please consider supporting us on Patreon. The Crossing of the Rhine River. After some confusion as to the location of their target, which was Maj. Gen. Raymond McLains 90th Division of Walkers XX Corps, the Germans regrouped on the evening of September 7 and advanced after midnight in two columns through the village of Briey toward the American position. 20th Century Timeline Of World History: What Happened? To learn more,click here for our comprehensive guide to General Patton. Because Haislips corps threatened his left flank, a substantial part of Luttwitzs corps was directed to take up a defensive stance. The Germans attacked along the entire line on September 29, and Wietersheim committed his final reserve of 40 tanks to the fight for Hill 318. Some 22,000 tons of assault bridging had to be brought forward, including 25,000 wooden pontoons, 2,000 assault boats, 650 Storm boats, 120 River tugs, 80 miles of balloon cable and 260 miles of steel wire rope. Before more German tanks could ascend the hill, P-47s swooped in with bombs and rockets after the fog burned off, breaking up a counterattack. For a five-day period at the beginning of September, Pattons Third Army remained idle as German forces to their east regrouped and entrenched behind the Moselle. Walkers corps consisted of the 5th and 90th Infantry Divisions and the 7th Armored Division, while Eddys corps, at that time, consisted of the 35th and 80th Infantry Divisions and the 4th and 6th Armored Divisions. As the Allied forces gathered and prepared along the Rhine River, George Patton and the U.S. 5 th Division were quietly carrying . In addition, Wood ordered CCB to shift to CCAs right flank to cover the ground between Rechicourt and the Marne-Rhine Canal. Thank You, BATTLE OF THE BULGE is scrolled underneath. Beyond the German front lines, US aircraft harassed retreating German columns, destroying 246 trucks and 241 railway wagons. (Back in Berlin, Adolf Hitler urged the Wehrmacht to attack the Allied bridgehead at Oppenheim, only to be told that no reserve forces were available to embark on such an operation.) Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. You can read more about the day . After suffering significant casualties from heavy anti-aircraft fire, the airborne infantry landed and participated in direct combat during daylight to attack the German defenders from both sides. Further south, where the river was narrower, Patton's Third Army vaulted the Rhine with its customary elan, as did Devers' Sixth Army Group. The final stage of World War II in the European Theatre commenced with the Western Allied invasion of Germany. For inquiries about military records for members of the World War II armed forces, please see our FAQ. Occupied Zone in Germany. But his request was denied as by then both sides had shifted the bulk of their resources to the northern sector. You mean across the Rhine? Sure am, Patton replied, I sneaked a division over last night. I think, everybody here know the photo as Patton urinated into the Rhine. To their surprise, they were not opposed by enemy forces. Pattons notion that Third Army could cross the Moselle with ease and cover the 40 miles from the river to the West Wall in a matter of weeks had been shattered by Manteuffels determined, if futile, counterattack in September. On the evening of March 22, 1945 General George S. Patton's forces were fronting the last major obstacle to the heart of Germany, the Rhine River. On the night of March 22, 1945, with no artillery preparation or air cover, assault boats of the 5th Infantry began their quiet crossing near Oppenheim. World War Two Timeline From The Great War To Germanys Surrender. Patton (18951945) directed the amphibious landings near Casablanca during the Torch landings. Seventh Army during the Sicilian campaign (Operation Husky), and in August 1944 his Third Army became operational in northern France. The Germans gained considerable ground on the morning of September 25, but the attack ground to a halt when the Germans were unable to dislodge CCA units from high ground northeast of Arracourt. The new panzer brigades each had a battalion of Panzergrenadiers drawn from the three Panzergrenadier divisions already in Lorraine. Since the days of the Roman Empire it has served as central Germany's traditional defense against invasion from the west. The bombing started on 21 Mar, and by 24 Mar the German air force were no longer able to put up much of a resistance against its Allied counterpart; 8,000 sorties were launched between 21 Mar and 24 Mar, and Allied airmen reported only about 100 enemy aircrafts sighted. The news came as a hard blow to Patton, whose spirits had been riding high with the prospect of pushing through the West Wall to the Rhine. From there, the vehicle fired an armor-piercing shell into the side of a Panther in a field 300 yards away. The light losses suffered by Abramss battalion were a result of his crews using their mobility to offset the advantage enjoyed by the Panthers long, high-velocity 75mm gun over the Shermans short 75mm gun. By August 30, Pattons army was receiving only about 32,000 of the 400,000 gallons of fuel it required to run all of its tanks and vehicles. The reversal of fortune gnawed at Patton from the outset of his service in France. The Rhine Crossings in the South Map X The Rhine River Crossings in the South 22-28 March 1945 From the first, General Patton had hoped to exploit his Third Army's part in the Saar-Palatinate campaign into a crossing of the Rhine. The Hellcats bought precious time for Companies A and B of the 37th Tank Battalion to rumble north from Lezey toward the battlefront. Montgomery was supposed to make the next crossing in a complex operation utilizing ground and airborne troops. Join historians and history buffs alike with our Unlimited Digital Access pass to every military history article ever published (over 3,000 articles) in Sovereigns military history magazines. The Americans sought to offset the Germans armor advantage in the sector by committing a platoon of Shermans from the 8th Tank Battalion to the fight. The German troops knew that the Allied forces were only taking a short time to gather up strength before the invasion into Germany would commence. When the Germans attacking Hill 265 learned of the withdrawal of the 11th Panzer Division to Bures, they also quit the battle. Patton knew his entrance into German-occupied territory was of monumental historical importance. Taken together, the losses seriously compromised the impending large-scale counterattack that Manteuffel was charged with executing. Although the crossing was uneventful and drew no enemy fire, Tucker remembered, We swore not to push our boat into the water., Instead, once the infantrymen scrambled onto the shore, Tucker and his fellow engineer simply got back into their boat and paddled back across. It began with the crossing of the River Rhine in March 1945, with forces fanning out and overrunning all of Western Germany until their final surrender on May 8, 1945. 6731 Whittier Avenue, Suite C-100 McLean, VA 22101, Stay up to date with all of our latest news, Third Army, which formed the right wing of Bradleys 12th Army Group, was composed of Maj. Gen. Walton Walkers XX Corps and Eddys XII Corps. The strike destroyed five Panthers and 20 half-tracks. Units of the Canadian First Army, British Second Army, and the U.S. Pattons third corps, Troy Middletons VIII Corps, had been detached and assigned to mop up German resistance in Brittany. Eisenhower issued orders in late August to all of his top commanders outlining a two-pronged offensive against western Germany in which the principal targets were the Ruhr and Saar industrial areas. Bradley quickly exploited the opportunity and expanded the bridgehead into a full-scale crossing. Over the next four days, CCA raided the countryside around Arracourt, managing to destroy more enemy tanks and vehicles at a cost of only a half dozen M4 Sherman tanks. Right: U.S. Army Generals Omar Bradley, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and George S. Patton. All comment submissions will become the property of WW2DB. To the right side of the center banner WORLD WAR II 75th ANNIVERSARY is Patton in a B-3 Bomber jacket and his name, GEN. GEORGE S. PATTON JR. Next is an image of Patton crossing the Rhine into Germany with a convoy of troops, supply trucks, troop caravan and an Sherman M4 tank. His plan called for a narrowing of the front, with two corps abreast and one in reserve. On 7 March, the 9th Armoured Division of the US 1st Army captured the partially damaged railway bridge at Remagen. You can also buy the book by clicking on the buttons to the left. Rather than give command of the U.S. First Army in the D-Day invasion to Old Blood and Guts, Ike gave it to Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley, a commander who had served directly under Patton in North Africa and Sicily. On the same day, 150 bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force flew from Italy to bomb the German capital of Berlin nearly unopposed from the air, meanwhile British Royal Air Force bombers attacked rail and oil targets in the Ruhr region. Anthony Read and David Fisher, The Fall of Berlin. Throughout the night of 23 Mar and the next day, 80,000 British and Canadian troops crossed the 20-mile stretch of the river. To the far left is scrolled, WARS MAY BE FOUGHT WITH . Even $1 per month will go a long way! The type of close-range fighting that day is exemplified by an encounter between an M18 Hellcat of the 704th against a pair of Panther tanks. ww2dbaseTo cross the Rhine presented the Royal Engineer with many highly technical problems, but experiments and preparations for just such a task had been carried out on the River Ouse, near Goole, since 1943, and orders for specialised equipment needed had been placed with the Ministry of Supply in good time. That evening German artillery brought down the bridge, and the 104th Panzergrenadier Regiment attacked with armor support in the dark of night, overrunning the bridgehead. At this location, on March 22 & 23, 1945, the 249th Engineer Combat Battalion, after supporting the U.S. Army 5th Infantry Division at Oppenheim, in the first successful Rhine river assault crossing since Napoleon, completed the construction of a 366 meter floating bridge to carry elements of General George S. Patton's 3rd Army across the Rhine. Control of the crest of Hill 318 shifted back and forth on September 28. Telling a story of a man whose ambition was matched by his audacity and creativity and drive, the author presents a picture of a compelling, complicated man.Interested in World War II? The Germans failed to reconnoiter enemy positions, and their replacement tank crews were no match for Leclercs veteran troops. XXX Corps. The German armored column continued south, hoping to stampede the American soldiers into abandoning their positions. Unfortunately for the Germans, the 111th Panzer Brigade became lost in unfamiliar countryside and didnt reach the staging area at Bures until late afternoon on the 19th. Patton's troops beat Montgomery across the Rhine by one day. This airborne operation was the largest of its kind during the entire war, utilizing 1,625 transports, 1,348 gliders, and 889 escort fighters to deliver over 22,000 airborne infantry into the contested territory. As the Allied forces gathered and prepared along the Rhine River, George Patton and the U.S. 5 th Division were quietly carrying . In a clever move, he ordered the 110th Panzergrenadier Regiment to attack Hill 318 under cover of darkness. Meanwhile, British 2nd Army began an offensive towards the Elbe River. A major firefight developed that resulted in the destruction of seven enemy tanks at the cost of three Shermans. Please use this data for any reference citations. The bulk of men and supplies would be detailed for the primary thrust toward the Ruhr in the north, but a secondary thrust through Lorraine was considered worth undertaking to stretch German forces along the Western Front. The Germans, in an effort to regroup, turned southwest to escape the ambush. This paratrooper operation was not a typical one where troops were dropped a distance behind enemy lines before the operation to disrupt communications; this time, Bernard Montgomery chose to drop the paratroopers immediately behind the enemy lines after the conventional infantry had already crossed the Rhine River under the cover of darkness. Old Blood and Gutss fixation with supply problems and haggling with his superiors over reinforcements had distracted him from the detailed planning necessary to get Third Armys divisions across the Moselle as quickly as possible. Near Moncourt, just east of Arracourt, a platoon of Mark IVs and towed anti-tank guns ambushed Abramss Company C, leaving a half-dozen M4 tanks mangled. By September 7, U.S. armored reconnaissance units had reached the Moselle despite resistance from Germans still on the west bank. The initial counterattacks against Third Armys bridgeheads should have convinced him that the enemy was regaining strength. Eddys XII Corps, on the right flank, began moving up to the Moselle that same day, and Walkers XX Corps, on the left flank, started its advance the following day. The American tank crews also benefited from a hydraulic turret that allowed them to swing into firing position faster than the Germans slower hand-cranked traverse. Click here for parts Two and Three. Your IP address will be tracked even if you remain anonymous. Once again, Company C of the 704th TD Battalion rushed forward to delay the advance supported by P-47s firing rockets and machine guns. Fearing Hitlers ire, Blaskowitz berated Manteuffel for failing to make any noticeable gains and ordered him to continue the counterattack regardless of the losses incurred. This meant that CCA was now on the left flank of the Arracourt-Juvelize salient and CCB was on the right. Panzergrenadier formations then swept forward to clear American antitank, machine-gun, and rifle positions. The 111th once again sustained staggering losses, losing 17 of 22 panzers. The Americans captured the northern fort almost immediately, but German paratroopers held out in the southern fort for five days. During the respite the Fifth Army was given the previous day, Manteuffel had assimilated the remnants of three battered panzer brigades into veteran divisions. Events in the northern sector made it necessary to divert precious fuel and ammunition to British and American units in that sector, which meant that Third Army would have insufficient resources to sustain prolonged offensive action. In fact, it was the first time an invading force had crossed the Rhein into Germany since Napoleon! Because of the heavy losses the Germans had sustained after the Normandy breakout, the Allies enjoyed a substantial advantage over the Germans in equipment, which amounted to a 2-to-1 advantage in artillery and nearly a 20-to-1 advantage in tanks. In a two-day pitched battle at Dompaire that began on September 12, a battle group from Maj. Gen. Jacques Leclercs 2nd French Armored Division of Haislips Corps smashed the 112th Panzer Brigade of Luttwitzs 47th Corps, which had been sent to check Haislips advance. On the night of March 22, just hours before the official operation began, Patton and his division crossed the Rhine quietly in boats. Against such odds, a breakout at that location was not deemed feasible. It was during this week, in late March of 1945, that the U.S. Third Army under Gen. Patton, began its famous bridging and crossing operations of the Rhine. C. Peter Chen of Lava Development, LLC. Both corps commanders had received intelligence reports that two Panzergrenadier divisions, the 3rd and 17th, were prepared to contest the crossing, and that they would likely be reinforced by surviving elements of the 21st Panzer and Panzer Lehr Divisions. Mrz 2023; . Despite the impressive numbers, the only armored unit initially available to Knobelsdorff was the 106th Panzer Brigade, one of the first of the newly formed panzer units with a full battalion of Panther tanks, which constituted First Armys thin operational reserve. Pattons triumph of the summer in which Third Army raced across France against light opposition had given way to the hard reality of bitter fighting along the Moselle line. The plan focused on Wesel, with multiple crossings set to occur along a 22-mile front on the evening of 23 March. Hitler, who reluctantly agreed to a far less ambitious counterattack than initially envisioned, issued orders for the German attack to begin on September 18. The 9th Armored Division quickly expanded the bridgehead into a full scale crossing. He ordered Knobelsdorff to attack Dagers CCB with the 559th Volksgrenadier Division and the remnants of the 106th Panzer Brigade. Behind the lines, Dwight Eisenhower transferred US 9th Army from Bernard Montgomery's army group to Omar Bradley's army group as Anglo-American objective shifted toward southern Germany and Czechoslovakia. The shift in plans resulted in an ominous quiet on the front lines that day and led to speculation as to whether the Germans had finally quit their offensive. That remained the case in the first months of 1945. As a result, the Germans broke off the attack and retreated to the safety of a nearby forest leaving behind 11 wrecked tanks. Ahead of the Allies were the remains of the German forces, often no more than Volkssturm or Hitlerjugend, determined to resist for as long as possible so that their Fu hrer had time to unleash his super . By early afternoon, the Germans were fighting their way into the southern end of the town. Brad, dont tell anyone, but Im across. A surprised Bradley responded, Well, Ill be damned. The Lorraine campaign would test Patton and his men as they had never been tested before. Love him or hate him, Patton cuts a singular figure in military history, and left a long, complicated legacy for historians, soldiers, and history buffs to consider. Maj. Gen. Leroy Irvins 5th Infantry Division pushed across the swollen waters of the flooded Metz River the following day to gain a precarious bridgehead at Dornot, five miles south of Metz. In 1943 he commanded the U.S. "My dear General", Winston Churchill said to the American general as they met the next morning, "the German is whipped. That evening Manteuffel made substantial adjustments to the German plan of attack. Scouts from the U.S. 42nd Cavalry Squadron detected a German column approachingfrom the south toward Lunville at 7 am on September 18. All of these units suffered serious armored and antitank deficiencies. National Interest Newsletter. Patton told Wood to strike east the following day in the belief that it would keep the Germans off balance. Our database is searchable by subject and updated continuously. 2nd Lt. Richard Buss, commanding a platoon of M18s, ordered one of his vehicles to take up a well-protected position behind a railroad embankment with only its barrel visible. HTML tags are not allowed. With no ground or air bombardments, they captured 19,000 German troops and created a six-mile bridgehead in the process. With their high-velocity guns, the Panthers easily knocked out the Yanks vehicles. Site created in November 2000. ", ww2dbaseAdditional Contribution by Alan Chanter. As Third Army firmly established itself on the east bank of the Moselle at Nancy, capturing not only crossing points but also key crossroads on the east bank, the Germans had to postpone their counterattack several times and continually revise it to adjust to new events. We figured we had a perfectly good boat. Suddenly, I saw the billowing of flames, Buss said. The eastern thrust of the 113th Panzer Brigades attack that day was aimed at Companies C and D of the 37th Tank Battalion guarding the eastern and southern approaches to Arracourt. Captain Richard Lamison, commanding Company C, took four Shermans and raced south along a ridge to another ambush position. After 48 hours of hard fighting, the bridgehead was abandoned. By September 10, Baades 35th Infantry Division was in force along the western bank of the Moselle south of Nancy. Left: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in the company of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and a party of U.S. commanders, crosses to the German-held east bank of the Rhine without incident, March25, 1945. The Shermans, which went into action in the morning, knocked out eight enemy tanks in quick order. Following the disaster at the Falaise Gap in August, where the Germans suffered 300,000 casualties, resistance had been light as the surviving German units raced east toward better defensive ground in the Ardennes and Alsace-Lorraine regions. The Shermans therefore attempted to use the ridge for cover and engage the Panthers head-on, with disappointing results. Meanwhile, Patton acknowledged that he might have to delay his advance east. Next is an image of Patton crossing the Rhine into Germany with a convoy of troops, supply trucks, troop caravan and an M4 Sherman Tank. That same day Third Army received about 240,000 gallons of fuel, which was sufficient to resume its advance the following day. In late March 1945, Gen. George Patton crossed the Rhine River on World War II veteran Glenn Chaney's bridge, pausing for the most famous bathroom break of t. Terms & Conditions; Privacy Policy Although the day was cloudy and wet, two squadrons of P-47s from the 405th Fighter Squadron were able to navigate to the area using their cockpit instruments and instructions from ground spotters. From the standpoint of losses in men and equipment, the Arracourt battles were a resounding victory for the Americans. But his cajoling paid off, as Bradley had been working hard to ensure that Haislips XV Corps, which had been helping to clear the lower Seine of German forces, would join Third Army on its southern flank. My Dad was quoted as saying: We had crossed the Moselle River and gained a high ground position two miles to the east. He made his way halfway across the bridge before suddenly halting. Eddy was tasked with locating possible crossing points above and below Nancy, while Walker was instructed to do the same above and below Metz. Nevertheless, the Germans established strong defensive positions in two dilapidated French fortresses that effectively blocked the western approaches to the city. He did not expect to encounter substantial resistance until he reached the West Wall. US First Army captured Paderborn and Hamm, Germany. ww2dbaseAll this, plus the assembly of vast amounts of troops, assault boats, Buffaloes, guns etc. On March 24, 1945, Patton approached a newly constructed pontoon bridge over the Rhine that his troops had placed two nights before and a Third Army division had already crossed. It was significant to the Allies because it offered a gateway between the Ardennes and Vosges Mountains, through which Allied forces might reach Germany. While waiting for fuel to arrive with which to resume his eastward advance, Patton received good news from Bradley on September 4 that he would soon receive reinforcements in the form of Maj. Gen. Wade Haislips XV Corps, which would guard his right flank against German forces retreating up the Rhone Valley. Lorraine, situated in northeastern France, consists of a large plateau interspersed with forests, lakes, fields, and towns, through which the upper stretches of the Meuse and Moselle Rivers flow. Did you enjoy this article or find this article helpful? Desperate to achieve their objective, the Germans toiled throughout the day to construct strongpoints and establish camouflaged positions on the southern slope to support their attack. Patton, who actually did not have the orders to cross the river, did so under an extremely low profile: quietly, his troops crossed the river in boats without artillery barrage nor aerial bombardment. The 37th Tank Battalion was sent to the rear to rest and refit. So Patton called Bradley again. By mid-September 1944, the U.S. Third Army was poised to strike at the soft underbelly of Adolf Hitlers Third Reich along a fabled corridor in northeastern France used for centuries by armies tramping across Europe. To descend the ridge and maneuver against the Panthers would have exposed the Shermans to the Panthers highly effective guns. When Manteuffel learned that the 111th had becomebogged down in Lunville, he ordered it to break off the engagement and bypass the town to the east. Distinguished Unit Citations: 11. As the Americans prepared to resume their push east, the vanguard of CCA shifted north toward Chateau-Salins. Company A, advancing on the left, gained high ground west of Juvelize, and with substantial artillery support, it checked the momentum of the enemy armor pushing south. His pleas fell on deaf ears, and he prepared to make do with the untrained and understrength units he had been given. 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He might have to carry the objective themselves landings near Casablanca during the Sicilian campaign ( operation Husky,.